Service-sector jobs continued to grow at a rapid pace in April, driving up wages and making it increasingly difficult for employers in the Washington region to recruit qualified workers, according to national employment indicators released Tuesday.
The data, released by theSociety for Human Resource Management and Rutgers University, forecasted continued growth across the nation, with nearly 57 percent of employers indicating plans to hire new workers in May. While the addition of new workers is good for the unemployment rate, the expanding job market has made it more difficult for firms to hire quality employees.
“If I were an employer, I know it’s going to be a little tougher to compete for talent,” said Jen Jorgensen, a spokeswoman for the Society for Human Resource Management.
In the Washington region — where the job growth rate is 2.4 percent, compared with the national average of 1.5 percent — the competition for new talent is even tougher, said Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.
The Washington region added about 74,000 jobs between March 2005 and March 2006. About 41.5 percent of those were in professional or business services — or service-sector jobs.
“This is a great time to look for jobs,” Fuller said. “Service jobs of a wide variety are both requiring high skills and low skills. There isn’t one skill set that gives you an advantage. There are jobs in every category.”
Where is the growth?
» The business and service sector, which can include anything from hospitality to federal contracting, continued to see the strongest growth in the Washington region.
» Manufacturing, which also saw growth in April, accounts for only about 64,000 of 3 million jobs in the region.
